Survey: Abortion Not Top-Tier Issue in White House Race

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, June 21, 2007

WASHINGTON – Despite wide attention on issues such as abortion in the 2008 presidential race, America's registered voters indicate abortion is not a top-tier issue.

Only 40 percent of all registered voters mark abortion as very important to their vote, according to the latest survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Abortion is a low priority among Democratic-leaning voters (38 percent) and even Republican-leaning ones (43 percent). Voters overall rate the economy and the war in Iraq as leading issues.

Among Republican-leaning voters, the top issue important to their vote is terrorism with 77 percent marking it as very important. For Democratic voters, the leading issue is health care with 82 percent indicating so.

The environment proved to have the widest partisan gap among campaign issues that Republican and Democratic voters view as very important. While Republican voters rate the environment as least important (37 percent) among other issues, 68 percent of Democratic voters rate is as very important. A wide gap was also found in health care. Fifty-six percent of Republican voters say health care is very important to their vote compared to 82 percent of Democratic voters.

Far more Republican than Democratic voters say that immigration will be a very important issue in their voting decisions. Sixty-three percent of Republican-leaning voters say immigration is very important to their vote compared to 47 percent of Democratic-leaning voters.

The smallest partisan gap was found in the issue of abortion with both party voters rating it as one of the lowest in importance.

At this stage of the presidential campaign, issues play only a modest role in candidate evaluations, the Pew survey found. Still, there are relevant links between voters' issue priorities and their candidate preferences.

Republicans who rate terrorism as a very important campaign issue express more of a "good chance" they would support Giuliani, Thompson, Romney and Gingrich than Republicans who see terrorism as less important. Republicans who rate immigration as very important express more enthusiasm for Gingrich, Romney and Thompson than do those who see it as less important.

When it comes to abortion, however, there is little relation between voters' issue priorities and candidate preferences except that Giuliani garners less interest from Republican voters who say abortion is very important compared to those who rate it as a lower priority.

In the Democratic field, voters who say health care is very important say there is a good chance they would vote for Hillary Clinton than voters who view the issue as less important. Democratic voters who rate terrorism as a very important campaign issue also express more interest in Clinton than those who place less emphasis on terrorism. Democratic voters who prioritize the environment, meanwhile, are more enthusiastic about Al Gore, Clinton and John Edwards than those who do not

While the majority of Democrats rate Iraq as a very important issue in their vote, there are no clear signs at this point to suggest that those who say it's important view the candidates differently.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted May 30-June 3 among 1,503 adults.